Tony Blair, former British prime minister, has begun a rapid tour of Asian capitals to help break the deadlock over climate change.
He says it is ‘urgent‘ that action is taken to cut global carbon emissions by 50 per cent.
It would be easy to be cynical about his one-man mission to save the planet…
A political party has started acting on Peak Oil.
AT LAST!
What will they do?
Not much - they are not in power, nor are they likely to be for the foreseeable future.
It’s the British National Party.
BUT AT LEAST THEY HAVE A DISCUSSION GROUP.
All the same…
The Times recommends we follow the Transition Towns model.
Do it ourselves.
Work at a community level rather than a political level.
Talk to neighbours, friends and workmates.
“Isle of Wight Council Chief Executive Joe Duckworth is to leave the authority in the summer to take up the same role at the London Borough of Newham.“IW Council leader Cllr David Pugh pledged the transition to a new chief executive would not disrupt the council’s aims and objectives, not least its ambitious plans to transform itself into Eco Island — a energy self-sufficient island by 2020.”
From the Council’s press release [read more]
We had been hoping that he would help us to push through a revitalisation of the CarShare scheme the Island desperately needs. Let’s hope he could see that completed before he leaves.
Between 8pm-9pm on 29 March, millions of people around the world will take part in Earth Hour 2008This is a WWF initiative asking people to turn their lights off for one hour.
It started with a question:
how could WWF inspire people to take action on climate change?
Two public meetings are avalable for Isle of Wight people to find out more about the Eco-Isle vision for a sustainable future. 
The Isle of Wight Council has organised a free Conference on March 26 to explain their Sustainable Community Strategy.
It will set out their vision for 2020 and plans for how a low carbon community will be achieved. The Strategy is the product of the Island Strategic Partnership, a multi-agency team of representatives from the public, business, voluntary and community sectors.
The morning will allow a variety of speakers to present relevant ideas from international competition, the Eden Project, Sustainable Energy Ireland, University Innovations and the new green design champion commission.
There is also an afternoon session for operations and business managers who would like to get practical advice about reducing the carbon footprint of their business. For more information about the content of this session, please call Pippa Howlett on 01983 823 693 or 07807 159 635.
A bigger event provided for the residents of the island is organised for the end of may, called the Big Green Picnic.
This will be held on Church Litten Park in Newport town centre on May 24 and 25.
Low carbon and sustainable lifestyles will be highlighted by the following features and activities that will be present throughout the whole weekend:
Civilisation aims to protect us from the extremes of nature through a system of cooperation, mostly invisible (taken for granted) these days. Research indicates that the more ‘civilised’ we are, the less worried we are.
Civilisation is designed to reduce our need to worry about our environment.
We can worry about entertainment rather than food.
We can concern ourselves with philosophy instead of shelter.
“For decades, scientists in the US had pointed out that New Orleans was a disaster waiting to happen.
The city lies in an area that is prone to annual hurricanes, half the city is below sea level, and a force 5 hurricane was bound to hit the city, so drastic measures had to be implemented immediately to avoid disaster.
Food security and the rapid rise in food prices are the urgent issue that politicians must face up to quickly.
Global grain stores are currently at the lowest levels ever, just 40 days from running out.
A whisky by-product has been found to clean contaminated ground and waste water.
The team at the University of Aberdeen believe they have a new technique to help the estimated 330,000 contaminated sites in the UK.
They say the Device for the Remediation and Attenuation of Multiple pollutants (Dram) has major potential in industry.
Early tests seem to show that Dram removes several contaminants simultaneously and is quicker and more cost-effective than current techniques.
The Glenfiddich distillery in Speyside has helped researchers get to this stage by donating the by-product, the nature of which is being kept secret.
On 1st February 2008, the Isle of Eigg Electrification Project will switch on for the first time, allowing power generated from renewable energy sources around the island to be supplied to all residents, through the new island wide high voltage distribution network.
The system will generate over 95% of the islands annual energy demand through a combination of Hydro Electric, Wind Power and Solar Energy, which is believed to be the first time that anyone has successfully integrated these three renewable energy sources.
To ensure that constant power can be provided, a battery storage system has been designed which will compensate for short periods of up to 24 hours, where energy from renewable sources is not available. Two 80kW diesel generators have also been installed to provide emergency back-up and to supplement the supply should the output from the renewable sources be lower than the demand.
A new report on the role of renewable energy in house-building recommends the Government should speed things up.
Renewables are essential to meet zero carbon standards in new homes. The current timescale of the government’s policy on ensuring all new homes are zero carbon from 2016 could drive a market for onsite renewable energy worth £2.13bn pa from that time.
But it would create very little demand before that, concludes a report from the Renewables Advisory Board, which advises the government on renewable energy issues.
Guardian: Environment Sustainable Development
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